Review: Aura by Rebecca Talley

 

Welcome to my stop in this blog tour hosted by Kathy @I Am A Reader, Not A Writer.   A big thank you to author, Rebecca Talley, for providing me an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Don't forget to swing by the Tour Page for other fun stops in this tour. Ms Talley is also giving a generous Giveaway for this tour, $25 Amazon GC or Paypal, so be sure to enter that below!

My Review

Aura by Rebecca Talley, YA, 2012, 337p, Rating=2.5

"I half-turned to her and shrugged, still processing what I'd seen, or at least what I thought I'd seen, in Ms. Neal's eyes—like they weren't hers. Obviously, they were her eyes, but it looked like she'd plucked them from someone else's head. A dead someone else's head."
In the fight between good and evil, Light is your only weapon.
Crystal Scott finally feels like a normal teenager. She has a lead in the high school play, a best friend, and a gorgeous boyfriend. With prom only a few days away, Crystal’s ordinary life seems perfect.
Endowed with great Light because of her virtuous choices and her inherent gifts, Crystal’s aura has become visible to those with the ability to see auras. Unfortunately, her power has also attracted the attention of demons intent on destroying all Light.
When Vincent Crandall, the human host for a powerful demon, discovers that Crystal’s Light is strong enough to disrupt the connection between demons and their hosts, he realizes she may be able to sever the connection altogether. Determined to stop her from interfering with his plans to rule the world, he sends operatives to neutralize her Light.
After the operatives fail to disable Crystal, Vincent decides he must harness her power for himself. He kidnaps her parents, and Crystal is thrust into battle against a demon army she didn’t even know existed. With the help of a mysterious young man and his mother, Crystal must learn to use the power within her before Vincent kills her parents and exploits her Light.

I was quickly drawn into the book by the suspenseful beginning and it made me happy. However, I was just as swiftly disappointed to find out that the mystery was not played out well enough to make it a fabulous read. It seemed to me that the author wanted to make sure that the message of “good prevails evil” to come across that instead of having the story tell it, she spelled it out. I want to be challenged. I want to read between the lines. I want spunky character developments that would have me wanting to swing punches alongside of them. I want exciting action sequences that would have me eager to turn the pages. Instead this read was a bit flat and predictable. Yet, I can’t ignore the good this book did communicate. That is, the more you let good into your being, the more powerful you are to defend yourself from evils and also how that goodness becomes an aura that shines for all to see and feel.  No brainer really but a message worth admonishing to the young adults that this is geared to, so for that I commend the author.  Thus, may our light of goodness ever so shine brightly that we may bask in the blessings it offers.

About the Author

Rebecca Lynn Talley grew up in the gorgeous seaside city of Santa Barbara, CA. She met, and married, her husband, Del, while attending Brigham Young University. She graduated from BYU with a degree in Communications. She currently lives in rural Colorado on a small ranch with a dog, too many cats to count, and a herd of goats. She and Del are the proud parents of ten wildly-creative, multi-talented children.
Rebecca is the author of a children's picture book, Grasshopper Pie (WindRiver 2003), a children's chapter book, Gabby's Secret (DuBon Publishing 2011), four novels, Heaven Scent (CFI 2008), Altared Plans (CFI 2009), The Upside of Down (CFI 2011), and Aura (DuBon Publishing 2012). She has also authored numerous children's stories and articles for both print and online magazines.
When she isn’t writing, Rebecca loves to date her husband, play with her kids, swim in the ocean, and dance to disco music while she cleans the house. She has folded at least one million loads of laundry, baked hundreds of batches of chocolate chip cookies, and eaten 5,478 gallons of ice cream.

Tour Giveaway

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